Excellence and Compassion - Reading Musical Foundation

RMF Assumes Haage and Smith Scholarships
from Reading Music Teachers Association
The Reading Musical Foundation has
assumed from the Reading Music Teachers
Association (“RMTA”) the administration of
two substantial music scholarships for collegebound
students who reside in Berks County
and study with a member of RMTA at the time
of application. They are the Haage and Smith
Memorial Scholarships. Both are payable for one
year, in two installments, and are nonrenewable.
The genesis of the George D. Haage Memorial
Scholarship was a pledge by George D.
Haage (1875-1966) in 1962 to contribute one
scholarship of $500 in each of three successive
years to students of RMTA members who
committed to study music in college or a
conservatory and to a career in music. In 1966,
RMTA sponsored its first “PianoFest” in the
Albright College Field House to raise funds for
the program. Other RMTA-sponsored ensembles
followed for the same purpose. The commitments
Dr. Haage imposed have since been relaxed. A
recipient must study voice, piano, or an orchestral
instrument privately in college, or major or minor
in music, to receive the award.
Helen Matz Smith (1909-1999) established
Millie Eben, Treasurer, and Keri Houp, First Vice
President, of the Reading Music Teachers Association.
Keri is one of Millie’s former piano students.
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the Smith Memorial
Scholarship in her
Will. The winner must
major in music at a
college, university, or
conservatory. Mrs.
Smith received her
musical training at
The Juilliard School in
New York. She taught
piano, organ, and voice
privately until 1988 George D. Haage
and was a member, and
later an honorary member, of RMTA. She served
as treasurer of the prestigious American Guild
of Organists and as organist for as many as 22
churches during her career, including St. Daniel’s
Lutheran Church in Heidelberg Township and
First Baptist Church, Reading, from which
she retired in 1970. Her generosity to RMTA’s
students was a “complete surprise” to RMTA,
according to Grace Mease, a former president of
the organization.
Dr. Haage’s long, fruitful career in music had
many facets. A native of Berks County and
graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Dresden,
Germany, Dr. Haage served as organist at St.
Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Reading for
50 years, missing only one Sunday service during
his entire career. In 1907, he inaugurated the
“Haage Concert Series” that brought to Reading
some of the finest musical talent in the world
for a period of 55 years under his supervision.
Albright College awarded him an Honorary
Doctorate of Humanities in 1956.
Dr. Haage founded RMTA, then known as the
“Music Teachers of Reading,” on September 13,
1926, coincidentally within a few weeks of RMF’s
organization in the Chamber of Commerce
Rooms in Reading. He served as RMTA’s
president from the time of its creation until 1964,
when he was succeeded in that role by
Miriam Weiss Heisler. In 1957 and again in